Butterfly Insights by Joie lake

[Mystique Enigma]

A marvelous lesson appeared for me just now as I was exiting thru the garage, to come to this little playplace they call an office.

 

As I opened the garage door, I startled a large moth, which, upon spreading it's wings, displayed a bright red "tail" hidden by the motley brown wings, more a "butterfly" than a moth.

It flew immediately to its perceived escape, the circle-topped window where it frantically tried to exit thru the invisible wall of closed glass.

 

I raised the third-car garage door in hopes of aiding it's escape. That caused it to fly higher and higher and become entangled in a spider web. Fearful that it would remain entangled in the web, I selected a long-handled broom to assist him escaping the tangled threads.

 

At this, he returned to furiously pumping his wings and banging into the glass, which was, in his perspective, the pathway of escape, but remained his cage.

 

By simply turning his focus to one side, he would have easily exited his prison. Rather, due to his intent on one direction, he remained confined, captive.

[Brian]

Hope the spider is OK.

[manitou]

This story doesn't have a happy ending, does it?

 

Yes, I agree that there is something profound in the focus of the moth, a prisoner of his own mental construct. There is indeed an analogy to be made in our lives - how we get entrenched in our habits, how much we miss because we're entrenched in our daily habits. How limited our vision is because we assume that our own perspective is the correct 'reality', and minimize the perspective of others, in favor of our own.

 

If only his consciousness had been a bit expanded.....

[GrandmasterP]

What is it with moths and windows?

Flies too.

You open a window to let a fly out, does he use it?

Nope, just keeps banging his head on the glass.

We use a tumbler and card to assist flying numpties back outside.

Edited May 21, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Marblehead]

There is a Bluegrass song by Peter Rowen titled "Like a Moth to a Flame". The song speaks to the concept presented in the opening post.

[GrandmasterP]

They laid this stone trap

for him, enticing him with candles,

as though he would come like some huge moth

out of the darkness to beat there.

Ah, he had burned himself

before in the human flame

and escaped, leaving the reason

torn. He will not come any more

 

to our lure. Why, then, do I kneel still

striking my prayers on a stone

heart? Is it in hope one

of them will ignite yet and throw

on its illumined walls the shadow

of someone greater than I can understand?

 

( R.S. Thomas).

Edited May 21, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[manitou]

You may indeed see the shadow

Of one you don't understand;

Recognizing the shadow as a manifestation

of You but magnified on its illumined walls.

 

for the Light is behind you; your density creates the darkness of the shadow;

Your return to lightness and love will render the shadow lighter;

the light no more blotted out by rigid and ingrained feelings, thoughts, and habit.

 

A heart turns to stone because of expectation. True love, agape love, expects nothing in return.

We are content to remain anonymous, a great obsession; our gifts we give freely, our love is given freely

and expecting nothing in return. The heart remains soft through exchanged actions..

 

Our challenger, our nemesis, is our ego. Defending itself at all costs, it justifies, blames, distorts, deceives us. It enables us to maintain our rigid beliefs, our ego requiring us to defend it at all costs. To gain mastery of the ego is to perceive the object without the lens of ego-protecting inner distortion. To hammer down the ego is a painful process, and every opportunity to look for the shattering situation only speeds up the results. Welcoming the moments where the ego may be shattered makes the process more of a game and a little more tolerable.

 

The greater One we wish to understand is contained within the microcosm of our selves. It has been said by Wise Ones to Know Thyself. This, surely, is the reason; to discover Self is to discover God. Not flying out there in the sky, but contained within our own relationship to the macrocosm, the cosmos.

 

We are, in our Very Essence, each a physical part of something much greater than ourselves, and together, combined, we are the Whole. The expressive part of the Whole. The trees, plants, rocky, and sky all have their part to play as well. Ours is to be Self-Conscious, capable of living in past, present, and future; whereas a chipmunk or tree lives very much in the Eternal Now.

 

To enter the Eternal Flow is its own reward; striving is no longer necessary.

Life comes to you with both gifts and requests.

There is a call within to live up to the request;

To not do so would be less than impeccable to one's own self.

 

(M. Anitou)

Edited May 22, 2014 by manitou

[Marblehead]

And so, if we turn around we will no longer see our shadow but we will rather see the light. We won't even see ourself. Nothing left to do but live.